Aerospace and defense supplier replaces welded metal and MDF tooling with large scale printed tools
D-J Engineering: Thermwood LSAM MT 1010
D-J Engineering, Inc., an aerospace and defense manufacturer, produces stretch form blocks, mill fixtures, and other production tooling. They now use an Thermwood LSAM MT 1010 large scale additive manufacturing system, replacing processes that previously took a month or two per tool.
Before LSAM
D-J Engineering builds tooling for programs with short lead times, and the tooling step itself was often the constraint.
"A lot of our projects have really short lead times and the tooling step was a big hurdle to overcome early on," said Ben Johnson, Engineering Manager at D-J Engineering.
A traditional welded stretch form block required four to a dozen individual components, each planned, programmed, machined, fabricated, welded, assembled, and then match machined again. Mill fixtures were built by gluing up sheets of MDF or compressed plywood and milling them.
"Before the LSAM 3D printer, we did a lot of wood mill fixtures, which is basically just taking sheets of MDF plywood or compressed plywood, gluing them all together, and we would mill those," said Mike Wilson, Tooling Designer at D-J Engineering. "It took a lot more time and a lot more effort, and just more of a pain to deal with."
Weeks Instead of Months
The crew at D-J Engineering with their Thermwood LSAM MT 1010
D-J evaluated metal additive systems before selecting LSAM, ruling them out on cost and cycle time. Print volume, U.S. manufacturing, included training, and Thermwood's support record drove the decision.
"With the LSAM print capability, we could have made these significantly faster, produced tools in weeks versus months, and expedited the delivery of this project greatly from what we already did," said Tyler Hieber, Engineering Manager at D-J Engineering, describing a complex formed skin assembly the company had produced using conventional tooling.
LSAM is like a whole other tool production shop
The printed tools have held up in production use. D-J reports running repeat parts off the same tools with little to no degradation.
"It's basically a whole other avenue," Johnson said. "It's almost like a whole other tool production shop for us."
Thermwood worked alongside D-J on the first project, consulting on tool design and print settings, and has stayed involved since.
"Working with Thermwood has always been just A-1 customer service," said Lucy Meadows, Tooling Planner at D-J Engineering. "They don't just make the product. They go out there and they use the product. They know what they're talking about."
D-J Engineering expects to expand LSAM use into composite tooling, including master molds and layup tools.